KelLee Parr - My Little Valentine

My Little Valentine

(The story of a mother and daughters lost love)

KelLee Parr

Copyright 2016 KelLee Parr

All rights reserved.

Printed in the U.S.A.

ISBN: 978-1-523-96136-8

Dedication

T his story is dedicated to my beloved mother and grandmothers. It is also dedicated to all the heartbroken young women who gave their babies up for adoption. Never give up hope.

Acknowledgments

T his is the true story of my mother and grandmothers journey to find one another. The story is factual and based on my personal experiences, information shared by family members, and hundreds of letters between mother and daughter. Some of the details and storyline are fictional, as I filled in the blanks as best I remembered or expected they happened. As I tell this story, I am sad to say both my beloved mother and grandmother have passed on. A few names have been changed to provide anonymity for certain characters and their families.

This book would not have happened without the encouragement and support of my friend, coworker, editor and proofreader, Margaret Heisserer. Thank you for pressing me to tell my mother and grandmothers story.

Thank you also to my friend, Rachelle Mengarelli, for your wonderful input, as you know my family and me as well as anyone. My mother appreciated your friendship and all you did for her as well. Amazing how fast thirty years fly by, but so happy to have had you as a friend along the journey.

Also, I would like to thank Patrice Scott for your editing and great feedback. As someone that had never heard the story, you helped make the story flow. I so appreciate your research about The Willows to be able to tell that part of the story more accurately.

To my graphic designer, Trista Bieberle, thank you for the wonderful design of the cover. It is exactly what I had envisioned.

Thank you to Laurel Elliot, dvb New York, for the use of the image of your beautiful necklace for the cover.

Finally, to my sisters, Jane and Janice, thanks for your support and help with remembering all the details from our mothers story and being the best sisters ever. Thanks to my nephew, Bo, and niece, EJ, for making Granny feel so special and for your help with my website and providing photos. Thanks to my cousins Mick and Skip for their help with information about the Kellers, and to Robert for your friendship and support.

The image of The Willows is from the December 24, 1908 issue of the Kansas City Star .

The following were very helpful resources:

Articles from St. Marys Star , St. Marys, Kansas, A Different Kind of Love Story August 27, 1991 by Dorothy Hoobler; Lynn and Emma Keller Observe Their 66th Anniversary March 1980 by their daughters; Lindsay Keller Will Celebrate 100th Birthday December 11, 1990.

Book by Geneva Keller Fairbanks, Precious Keller Memories

Book by Thomas M Perry, Jr., Bahner History

Biography of the Barron and Connected Families compiled by A.M. Barron

For readers interested in knowing more about Leona and Wandas story, check out photos and additional information at my website: www.mylittlevalentinebook.com

I would also love to hear from others who have a connection to The Willows. I was totally amazed to find out the role The Willows had in so many lives from 1905 to 1969 and how Kansas City was the adoption hub of America. Hopefully through my website, people can share and learn from others about their backgrounds and connect with lost family members.

My Little Valentine

Chapter 1

Summer 1991

W here have you been ? Ive been dying for you to get home. It came! It came! The letter, it came! Ellen screamed as she emerged from the back room of her condo. This letter could be the answer to the secret Ellen and I had been sharing for months.

My confidant was my fiftyish, next door neighbor in the condominium complex where I lived. We lived in the Barcelona building between Madrid and Seville though we never quite got the feeling we were living in Spain while actually living in Topeka, Kansas. It was our common interest in flowers and gardening that sparked our friendship.

Ellen moved in across the hall in the fall of 1990. She had a flair for life and had that gravelly Marlena Dietrich voice from years of smoking. She was as thin as a rail and had difficulty breathing at times. I understood from her determined spirit why Ellen, even with emphysema caused from years of puffing on cigarettes, would move to a second floor condo with no elevator. The lady just wanted to prove she could do it.

Many a night after work, Ellen would sit out on her balcony, smoke a cigarette, and twist macram cord to make some new device to hang more plants. More often than not, the only way I knew Ellen was even out on the balcony was by the cigarette smoke billowing up over the jungle of entangled flowers. If not doing something with her flowers, she often would have a book in hand, transported to a far off place. But then again, the book could be one of her smutty romance novels with a bare chested Fabio look alike on the front cover.

At least a couple nights a week after work, I would join Ellen on her little balcony that looked out over the courtyard of our complex. We would sit on the colorful flowered cushions on her white wicker chairs and chat the early evening hours away. There was usually a new remodeling project she was working on in her condo, and it was fun to watch the progress. We would share stories about our families, and she told me all about her upbringing in rural Kansas, which was not that far from where my maternal grandpa was born. Ellen told me how she loved to travel and would often take off on vacation to one of the destinations she had read about in one of her travel books.

Another amazing Ellen fact was that even with the breathing problems that had been developing over the past few years, she was starting to take ballroom dancing lessons and would go bowling at least once a week. Nothing will stop me from enjoying life, she said.